194 MENTAL HEALING. 



home, the tenacity with which we chng to hfe are derived by this 

 w^riter from the primeval principle of vegetative life. 



But I have said enough to illustrate the fact that alongside of 

 the active work of the intellect, with which e.g. we study mathe- 

 matics or pursue our profession, there is a large dreamy half-con- 

 scious tract of mind, not sharpened to a single point like the 

 active intellect, but consisting in a multiplicity of mind centres 

 diffused throughout the organism, the fact that beside the single 

 supreme rational activity which we call our mind, there exist in 

 us other forms of consciousness similar to those which accompany 

 the growth of the plant or the life of the animal ; and that this 

 residual consciousness, however much we may discard or disown 

 it, continues to live and work, and does things which the proud 

 intellect is unable to do. 



Of course we must not forget that these form.s of feeling and 

 instinct, of perception and re-action, which we regard as largety 

 our heritage from lower forms of life, are enormously modified b}^ 

 their juxta-position with a rational intellect. 



The ultimate unity of our nature which comprehends both the 

 intellect and them makes itself felt ; the lower form of mentality 

 is still the mentality of the human being, and the general position 

 may be described by saying that there exists a de-centralised con- 

 sciousness, diffused through the organism, irrational but capable 

 of sharing in reason and of listening to it, as Aristotle would say, 

 and manifesting itself in a power of receiving impressions, manip^i- 

 lating them and re-acting upon them, a power which in our present 

 state of ignorance we describe by the convenient word " abnormal." 



Now the relation between these rudimentary forms of conscious- 

 ness, this whole plane of the subliminal on the one hand and the 

 central reason on the other is one of enormous interest and is 

 being investigated under different aspects by both psychology 

 and physiology. 



One thing is quite clear, that the history of this relationship 

 between subconscious and rational has been a very chequered 

 history, and that the reason does not stand at all in the position 

 of an absolute despot whose sway there is none to dispute. It 

 stands rather in the position of a mediaeval sovereign who exerts 

 a precarious and hardly-won control over a mob of turbulent 

 vassals who chafe beneath his yoke and are sometimes able to 

 throw it off. 



When one of these minor psychical entities gets the upper hand 

 we have the phenomenon of secondary personality. 



Sometimes, again, the subconscious mind helps the intellect by 

 solving problems which have baffled the intellect. A man goes 

 to sleep with his mind full of confused data or elements which can- 

 not be satisfactorily interpreted. They are like those blocks 

 which, when put together, form a coherent picture. He has puzzled 

 over them in vain, but in his sleep the problem is solved with 

 perfect ease — the blocks come together in their right connection 

 and the work is done. Or again, in purely literary work the sub- 

 conscious mind does yeoman's service to the literary man ; in 

 fact, according to Mr. Myers, it is the agent in works of genius. 



